Wilmington & Woburn Terminal RR

The May 2004 Issue of [b]Railpace[/b] magazine reported that the STB granted approval to the New England Transrail LLC d.b.a W&W T to construct 2,700 feet of new line, to acquire 1,300 feet of existing track, and to operate 4,000 feet of track in Wilminton and Woburn following completion of the environmental review process. No start up date was indicated. Has any one heard about this new railroad and who the potential customers might be?

Ed,
No I haven't heard anything about this, but I have to believe that they are talking about the Wilmington end of the Woburn Loop. See my post on Exploring the Woburn Loop.

Chuck Gullage

NE Transrail wants to construct a loading facility in order to ship out
construction and demolition materials via rail. Their site is the former
Olin Chemical plant. Whether this happens remains to be seen as there
is sginificant opposition in both towns to this project.

If the W&WT does come to fruition, they would probably end up
switching Glen Falls Cement at Woburn Jct. They also want to
connect their track to the MBTA mainline at Anderson RTC, using
Track No.4 and the old lead to New England Resin.

Dave

Trash and debris......keeping the American railroads in business!! LOL

http://www.vtce.org/railexemptionma2.html

Why is NE Transrail negotiating with the B&M Railroad? I thought they were out of busniess.

Boston & Maine is owned by Guilford Rail System. If you read a notice of abandonment of one of there lines it always list Springfield Terminal as the provider of service and Boston & Maine as the owner of the tracks.

OOOOH! Are you saying maybe, JUST MAYBE, we will have something new to watch in my area?? Geesh, I could go watch them on my lunch break... which I rarely take...

JD

Any news on this?
- Stephen

Steve-

It's still alive and kicking. Wilmington is outraged and will fight it to the end according to the latest local news articles.

Dave

Why? Because MA is so against any non-technology or non-retail business!! Think about it. Why are all the farms gone? Mills? Factories?

Why should Wilmington be so against something that will bring in taxes?

Just ask people in Norwich, CT how much tax $$ Phelps Dodge brings in up here! The plant had a fire last week and people were worried about them closing down. I would think Woburn has more industrial tax $$ coming in, but I could be wrong, especially if MA has been acting like CT and driving out industries.

Check out the webpage below from Atlantic Northeast for more information about this railroad and a description of exactly where it will operate and the page from latest decision by the Surface Transportation Board (12/04) concerning environmental issues and cleanup:

http://www.atlanticnortheast.com/onl/esample.pdf

http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/Readin ... enDocument

Wilmington's objections (shared at least in part by Woburn) are two-fold.
First, the site of the trans-load facility is heavily contaminated. There is a fear that the contaminants are seeping into the town's water supply. They worry that if NE Transrail begins to operate at the site, the clean up will be delayed or stopped.
Second, all of the access roads to the site pass by at least a few homes. There is a concern over the number of trucks the site would attract. If you go by NE Transrail's estimate it could be up to 80-100 per day, this would not sit well with the home owners.
Unfortunately the site is both contaminated and in an area that is not strictly industrial. I believe that the details can be resolved, but I suspect it will simply end up in the courts.
- Stephen

Is is possible some deal could be struck where the railroad takes part in the cleaning and actually speeds up the process of the de-contaminating(or am I now the laughing stock of this site). I was down there not long ago taking a few photos at the cement plant and one of wilmington's finest showed up to check my business. Nice guy, we talked a bit about the project. is this contamination related to the scandal in the 80's that the moive Civil Action was about?